CPA Licensure Prep: Advanced Auditing and Attestation

By the end of this course, you’ll understand how assurance and attestation services strengthen financial reporting, support public trust, and shape the responsibilities of CPAs and their clients. You’ll learn how audits, reviews, and agreed-upon procedures differ in scope and purpose—and how professional standards guide each engagement. This course explores the real-world dynamics of CPA-client relationships, auditor independence, internal control evaluation, risk assessment, and evidence gathering. You’ll examine both sides of the engagement: what auditors are responsible for, and what financial statement preparers must do to ensure a successful audit. You’ll also explore the growing demand for CPAs, the structure of the profession, and the regulatory environment that governs assurance services. What makes this course unique is its applied, judgment-focused approach. Rather than memorizing definitions, you’ll analyze how assurance services operate in practice, how professional responsibilities intersect, and why financial transparency is critical to markets and stakeholders.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to identify and apply the core regulatory and professional standards that govern modern auditing and assurance engagements. You’ll evaluate auditor responsibilities under the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, understand independence and integrity requirements, and distinguish between standards issued by the PCAOB, IAASB, and the Institute of Internal Auditors. This course explores the regulatory framework that shapes audit practice in both U.S. and international contexts. You’ll examine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the role of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the structure of International Standards on Auditing, and the evolution of internal audit standards under the IIA framework. What makes this course unique is its integrated, cross-framework approach. Rather than studying standards in isolation, you’ll compare how they interact across public company audits, private engagements, internal audit functions, and multinational contexts. By the end, you’ll have a clear, structured understanding of how audit oversight bodies and professional standards collectively safeguard financial reporting integrity in global capital markets.